Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

(spoilers!)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has an appropriately silly title for a movie that is so bad, it could easily work as an unintentional comedy or a drinking game or a thesis on how not to make a comic book movie. It is that bad, one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a cinema in a long time. Granted, I expected not to like it but had to see it anyway, mainly because its predecessor Man of Steel was one of the kickstarters for this blog. I’m not sure BvS:DoJ can solicit as deep an analysis as Man of Steel did, but there is plenty to discuss anyway. But let me stress one more time: this movie is really, really bad, worse than Man of Steel, incompetently bad and a really bad sign for DC’s attempt at creating a movie universe. And I say that as a confessing comic book and superhero fan. This movie is stupid, incoherent, annoying, laughable and boring. I’ll keep my bets on Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse even more than before.

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Spotlight (2015)

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Spotlight (2015)

(minor spoilers)

Spotlight is not your typical Best Picture Oscar-winner because it is not flashy or fancy, neither in its filmmaking nor its acting, but it is a really good and important movie. The performances are all great, nuanced and authentic with not one overpowering the others but simply being believable. Tom McCarthy is a director who doesn’t get enough credit for his style. There are scenes where the camera and the editing do very subtle things that are incredibly effective. The movie certainly takes its time but is never boring for a second because every scene has a purpose and adds to the overall picture and message. Some people call it “boring” or “old-fashioned”, which is not true in either case. It is a compelling piece of cinema that does exactly what it needs to do. I highly recommend it.

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Ex Machina (2015)

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Ex Machina (2015)

(spoilers)

Ex Machina fulfills the expectations I had after reading and hearing so much about it in the last couple of months. It continues Alex Garland’s streak of writing thought-provoking stories that challenge common perceptions we have about ourselves and our society. The movie uses amazing performances (Isaac, Vikander and Gleeson are all excellent), impressive visual effects and its gorgeous locations to generate a very effective movie that is intriguing from beginning to end. Just when you think it becomes too conventional it takes an extra turn at the end to become even more than we thought. It might not be an absolutely amazing movie (it’s not Looper), but it nevertheless is very good.

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It Follows (2014)

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It Follows (2014)

(spoilers)

It Follows is an incredibly unique horror movie that almost never does what you expect it to do and constantly challenges and surprises you. It is slow but scary, beautifully filmed and plays with genre conventions while still following the traditions of classic horror movies. That it accomplishes both is impressive all by itself. It is simply amazing to me that this small movie manages to get everything right, astounding cinematography (almost every shot could be framed, not unlike the amazing work of Gregory Crewdson), a fitting score, great performances and a compelling story that is just ambiguous enough to neither be frustrating nor too expository. I also love the unspecified setting, its mix of futuristic and 80s-nostalgia tones. It is a horror masterpiece for which you have to be ready because it’s dreamlike atmosphere is not for everyone. But it’s really, really good. It’s one of those debut movies where you feel every second that someone put all their efforts and passion into making exactly the movie they wanted to make, which turns out to be a great movie.

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Divergent (2014)

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Divergent (2014)

(spoilers!)

Divergent is exactly what you think it is: a second-rate Hunger Games with a similar story that’s less appealing and actors that are less interesting. It’s an incredibly silly movie that is still somewhat entertaining but filmed with a great lack of skill (other than its sequel Insurgent which is still silly, less entertaining but better filmed), especially in the last third where action sequences almost seem amateurish as the editing mostly renders them incoherent (can this movie really be edited by Se7en's Richard Francis-Bruce?). Only Kate Winslet somewhat elevates the material, if maybe only because it is refreshing to see her as a (spoiler!) villain. Still, it’s mostly a forgettable film where it is hard to believe that is stretched to another four movie series.

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Sleepaway Camp (1983)

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Sleepaway Camp (1983)

(spoilers ahead)

Sleepaway Camp is a perfect bad movie. It’s so ridiculous in anything it is doing that it is a constant joy to watch (if you enjoy bad movies of course). The acting is over the top or non-existent, every aspect of filmmaking is weird and the story doesn’t make any sense. But it’s fun! It’s a classic slasher movie with silly death scenes and the most logic-free plot you can imagine. On top of it all, the movie is incredibly sexist (in many ways) all the way to the insane ending. It is really incredible that this movie was a success and seemingly is still remembered fondly by people who saw it in the 80s. But there is nothing better for listening to funny people talk about it.

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The Revenant (2015)

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The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant is a breath-taking movie, a visceral experience that not many movies can provide and while it may not be super-deep (as some critics accuse it to be), it resonated deeply with me on a pure emotional and symbolic level. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a great performance, but then he always does, so a real surprise for me was Tom Hardy. His performance is impressive in the many layers he finds for his character and put him on my radar (where DiCaprio has been for a while already). But no review could ignore the director Alejandro González Iñárritu because the movie is really noteworthy for its amazing filming style. The incredible long takes, the beautiful shots of snow and forests and mountains and horizons, the savageness of many scenes and at the same time the courage to analyze how we depict others as savages. Emmanuel Lubezki must be one of the greatest cinematographers of our time and he would just with this movie and Children of Men alone (and I loved the similarities like the blood on the lenses). The score by Ryuichi Sakamoto (and many others) is great, even the visual effects work quite well for such a seemingly naturalistic movie. I loved it and wasn’t bored for a second of its 152 minutes, even if not that much happens.

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Honig im Kopf (2014)

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Honig im Kopf (2014)

Honig im Kopf, the most successful German movie of 2014, is a bit of a mess, trying to mix the trademarks of Til Schweiger’s other successes with a “serious” topic like dementia. One of the many problems of this movie is that few of these trademarks really work outside a pure comedy, neither the over-the-top slapstick nor the exaggerated characters nor his daughter’s weak acting nor the misogyny. Sure, Dieter Hallervorden’s acting is a pleasant surprise but the movie is working against him wherever it can. From the toilet jokes to the showcasing of guest actors to the insistence on songs with charts potential. But there is nothing that compares with the editing. The movie is easily one of the worst edited movies I have ever seen, coming close to real trash like Birdemic. How this happened is a total mystery to me. How anyone could have approved that and what the purpose was supposed to be, to have conversations with 1-second-takes, is totally baffling. It is a movie that annoys me the more I think about it.

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Joy (2015)

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Joy (2015)

(spoilers!)

Joy is simply and shortly disappointing. It’s always a problem if you have really high expectations for a movie, any movie, but how could you not with these names attached? With two movies as great as Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle preceding them? But Joy never lives up to those energetic miracles and it’s hard to pin down what its problem is. It is incoherent in its mood, its message, its style. It wants too much and doesn’t know what it wants at the same time. Jennifer Lawrence is as amazing as she can be and even in bad movies I’d never get tired of watching her act. But this movie doesn’t work and it’s worse as failed potential than as an actual movie. Some of the acting by some actors is cringeworthy, the whole soap opera framing device is as dysfunctional as it is suddenly discarded and the structure of the script never achieves any kind of flow that this movie needs. The narration seems off, the ending is frustrating and Bradley Cooper’s role almost not necessary. Despite all of these (and many other) flaws, the movie is a collection of good parts that never add up. It’s one of the worst kinds of movies, the well-intended, ambitious mess that is worse because it could have been so good.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

 (spoilers ahead!)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a really good movie. It has enough nostalgia to keep everyone happy who knows the world enough to enjoy it but delivers many new ideas to hold newcomers’ attention too. Especially the first half is extremely entertaining and well-written and while the movie slags a little bit (just a little) in its second half, it still never gets boring for a second. I was really impressed by the acting, especially the two new leads, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega, while I’m still not so sure about Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. There was at least one amazing long take that made me want to cheer along with Finn (Boyega) and overall J.J. Abrams’ directing was more than solid. I’m probably the most in love with John Williams’ score which is simply beautiful. I can’t really say anything bad about the movie. It’s endearing and enjoyable and fun while also being tragic. Coming out of the theater, I felt like watching it again, which doesn’t happen so often.

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Steve Jobs (2015)

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Steve Jobs (2015)

Steve Jobs is an excellent movie in every aspect. Its grounded in the clever screenplay by Aaron Sorkin who chooses an unusual structure and pulls it off better than anyone could have imagined. The other foundation of the movie’s success is Michael Fassbender in the title role. Fassbender is always brilliant but here he shows some facets I hadn’t seen before from him. Kate Winslet is amazing too in an interesting role. Danny Boyle’s direction also helps to keep the film entertaining, with unusual camera angles, different film stock and a fascinating color scheme. The movie is not realistic or authentic, but one of its charms is that it is fully aware of that and never claims to be. It breaks a lot of rules that normal Hollywood movies tend to follow and proves that sometimes that’s the right way to go. I mean, I’m not a big Apple fan (to put it mildly) and I have a hard time admiring Steve Jobs, but none of this stopped me from enjoying the movie so much, which proves how successful it is in telling a compelling, intelligent story.

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Noah (2014)

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Noah (2014)

Noah is a movie that has a certain fascination with it, but ultimately fails, but mostly ideologically. Cinematically, it is often impressive but also gets lost in CGI and awkward plot threads. It has an unusual protagonist that is very hard to like, which makes it a perfect role for Russell Crowe. The movie is… I don’t know, it certainly has its appeal and you can see some of the interesting thoughts that went into it, also not trying to make it a dumb faith-movie (it really isn’t) and treating it simply as a compelling story. But for whatever reason, the movie doesn’t really work. As a fan of Darren Aronofsky this is hard to watch even if you see his touches here and there. But in the end, my biggest problem with the movie is its message, which I’ll further analyze below.

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Behind These Castle Walls, Part II: Pinocchio (1940)

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Behind These Castle Walls, Part II: Pinocchio (1940)

For the second movie in my Disney series we get to the second animated full-length feature which is Pinocchio, released in 1940. I’d say as a movie it’s not as well known as some of the other Disney movies, while still pretty popular. Just as Snow White it is a well-made movie with great animation and interesting, creative set pieces. The story, based on a novel, was changed significantly and is at least as problematic as Snow White’s, in my opinion. While many themes are similar, some new ones are also introduced. But let’s get to the analytical details of this one, it won't be short.

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Enter the Ninja (1981) [1981 Week]

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Enter the Ninja (1981) [1981 Week]

(spoilers ahead)

I watched so many movies for this week and when I decided to stop I had a hard time deciding which movies to focus on. Surprisingly, I picked Enter the Ninja, probably the goofiest movie of them all. But it is one of those really enjoyable bad movies that I love (and that you have to watch a dozen terrible movies before finding one). The story is a joke, the acting is horrible, even a kid could point out the continuity errors, it’s offensive in many ways and many, many, many things make no sense whatsoever. But somehow, it’s fun to watch Franco Nero play a ninja (which is a silly idea in itself), only to clearly see that he never does any ninja stuff which is reserved for his stunt double (and original lead actor Mike Stone). The fight scenes are even decent in some regard, just everything else is incredibly sloppy and over the top. If you enjoy these kinds of movies, you’ll love Enter the Ninja.

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Blow Out (1981) [1981 Week]

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Blow Out (1981) [1981 Week]

(spoilers ahead)

Blow Out is an incredibly cinematic movie but it never becomes just an exercise in moviemaking by actually having something to say. Still, director Brian de Palma uses every trick in the book to enhance this story and to (often) visually explore an aspect of moviemaking that is not visual: sound. That alone is fascinating to watch but the movie also works as a dark conspiracy thriller about a disillusioned generation that mourns the 60s and 70s. John Travolta delivers a great performance here with a wide range of hopelessness, excitement, anger and despair. But this is a director’s movie and I’m not the first to suggest that this might be de Palma’s finest moment both as a director and a writer. The use of split-screens, change of focus with special lenses, long takes and a circling camera (in one spectacular scene that doesn’t ever seem to stop) are impressive and effective at the same time. After watching so many movies from 1981, this one stands out so spectacularly that even weeks after seeing it, it makes me feel good to see so much passion on the screen.

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Straight Outta Compton (2015)

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Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Straight Outta Compton is an effective musical biopic that is rare for centering on a group that made highly controversial music. N.W.A. basically invented (or at least popularized) gangsta rap and the movie does a fine job of showing their journey from the beginning to the end in great detail. I’ll discuss the value of those details in a second. The performances by Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell are great, and so is Paul Giamatti as the ambiguous manager. The music keeps us going through the rather long 147 minutes and the movie does a great job at evoking the racial tensions and police brutality at the time, effectively drawing conclusions for today. It’s a powerful movie that worked for me, but its problems kept nagging at me anyway, which makes it difficult to evaluate as a whole. It's also hard for me to say how well the movie works without nostalgia, which played a big part for me, which just goes to show how subjective we view movies.

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X-Men: First Class (2011)

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X-Men: First Class (2011)

(some spoilers)

X-Men: First Class is an excellent comic book movie that is very satisfying for a comic book reader on a sheer entertainment level. It adapts the source material with joy and knowledge that is really refreshing. I honestly can’t say how enjoyable the movie is for a non-comic reader but I know that the acting is great (showing off a great cast from Michael Fassbender to Jennifer Lawrence to Nicholas Hoult to Kevin Bacon to Rose Byrne and, yes, James McAvoy who I’m not a fan of, but was still good), the effects are impressive, the 60s style camera and editing is fun and director Matthew Vaughn (also not a fan, but) does some nice things with the movie. The movie knows how to balance action, drama and humor unlike many other movies.

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Southpaw (2015)

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Southpaw (2015)

Southpaw is an utterly conventional and manipulative movie that is only saved one of Jake Gyllenhaal’s most unique (and best) performances as the boxer Billy Hope. Gyllenhaal is not just good, he creates a character unlike anything we’ve seen before. Hope is so different and ambiguous. We cannot entirely figure him out, but that is part of his appeal. If you have seen the trailer, you basically know everything about the movie’s standard plot. There are no surprises and the emotions asked of you are a high form of manipulation. Sure, on some level it still works (daddy-daughter dramas always get me), but I can still criticize the movie’s laziness. The script by Kurt Sutter is a mess, leaving many plotlines unresolved and instead relying on us knowing how these stories go. Aside from some questionable shots, Antoine Fuqua’s direction is well done, especially the boxing scenes. I would recommend the movie only for Gyllenhaal’s performance, although it is strangely effective if you turn off your brain.

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Nightcrawler (2014)

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Nightcrawler (2014)

(spoilers ahead)

Nightcrawler is a brilliantly intelligent movie, centered around an amazing performance by Jake Gyllenhaal following a very focused and clever screenplay and direction by Dan Gilroy. The movie knows exactly what it wants to do and what it wants to talk about. Every aspect of the movie caters to that goal, the captivating nighttime images by Robert Elswit, the beautiful score by James Newton Howard and John Gilroy’s editing. It’s an exceptional movie in the way it presents its story, its tone and in its protagonist. It warrants a deep analysis and while this will be long, it doesn't even come close to everything the movie offers.

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Revolutionary Road (2008)

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Revolutionary Road (2008)

(no real spoilers)

Revolutionary Road is the adaptation of a great novel by Richard Yates that I read many years ago and dearly loved as an amazingly early criticism of our culture.  The movie achieves to portray the problems from the novel in a very effective way. I don’t want to compare both of them too much, because I think the movie is its own thing that works well. It features great performances, especially by Kate Winslet and Michael Shannon, but really, all the actors are great. It’s beautifully directed and shot, with a great Thomas Newman score. Director Sam Mendes treads very similar territory as in his American Beauty, but the movies are very different in their tone.

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